It’s the little things in my Google Inbox

Google Inbox isn’t some great innovation in the industry. It’s just one step toward making e-mail fun again.

We aren’t forwarding e-mail hoaxes anymore, we’re retweeting them on Twitter. Your grandmother doesn’t write you from her AOL address, she’s busy trying to figure out how to add a profile picture to the Facebook account you set up for her two years ago. Even the spam filters are growing too effective for you to need to prune the latest Viagra alert from your inbox. Where did the fun go?

Google Inbox is new. It feels pleasant. It’s easy to use. And it has some powerful features disguised as adorable swiping actions.

Snoozing isn’t particularly new to e-mail clients. Neither is treating your inbox like a TODO list. Even prioritizing important e-mails was tried by Google years ago.

Still this presentation makes it feel different. It makes it feel nice.I get joy out of seeing the inbox clear out and display a cartoon sun and clouds. I don’t process 700 e-mails a day, I’m just happy to see my mother’s e-mail sooner than the latest J.Crew lookbook.

Go ahead, give me the satisfaction of swiping away all my promotional e-mails in one stroke. I like it better than filing them to yet another manila folder icon.

It’s true, I like simplicity in my technology. But that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t have heart.